


in the dark i can hear your heartbeat

by stardustednewt



Category: The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Aris is a good roommate, Blind!Thomas, College football game, Fluff, M/M, Sorry it’s so short, newt is deployed, soldier!newt, thomas worries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 18:52:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12514068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustednewt/pseuds/stardustednewt
Summary: Thomas is blind due to an accident. Newt is a soldier.





	in the dark i can hear your heartbeat

Thomas was blind. He hated it. He wished he could see again. He had gone blind when he had been in a bad car accident. One minute he was watching the land go by as he flipped down the side of the road and the next minute he was waking up in a hospital room with his most used sense gone.

It had been hard to adapt. Thomas would cuss and throw down his newly acquired cane every time he stumbled walking around the hospital room. His mother tried to reassure him and tell him that it got easier, but Thomas would always reply with, “You’re lying.”

He did sort of get used to it. About 4 years later when he was 21 years old and ready to be done with college. However, he did have a few years left but that didn’t change his views, despite how many times Aris, his roommate, told him that college was waaaaay better than high school. 

It wasn’t. Thomas always had trouble navigating his way to his lecture and it was garbage. There was never a day where Thomas didn’t have bruises on some place of his body.

But it all got better when he met Newt. Newt was going into the army. They had met at a coffee shop. How cliché. But Thomas was always closed off, despite how many times Newt tried talking to him. It seems that Newt would always be waiting to talk to Thomas. Thomas was either very flattered (secretly) or very embarrassed because he probably looked like a mess in Newt’s eyes.

And then it had happened, Newt had asked Thomas out, despite Thomas’s attempts to avoid that. It had probably been a full minute of Thomas stuttering, trying to spit out an answer, when he heard Newt say, “Tommy, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Thomas had gotten good at reading emotions in people’s voices and he could practically here the strain and hurt dripping from Newt’s words. 

“I would definitely like to go out with you,” Thomas said, loud enough for the whole coffee shop to go silent. Thomas could feel all eyes on him and he immediately shrunk down, trying to make himself seem small. 

“What’re you buggers lookin’ at?” Newt asked the crowd loudly. As soon as he had said that, everyone quickly resumed their talking. Thomas lifted his head, and pointed his gaze in Newt’s general direction. 

“Thank you,” he whispered. He thought it was too quiet for Newt’s ears, because he could hear Newt getting up from his seat. Thomas started twiddling his thumbs and looked down so it wasn’t too obvious for the customers to see he was blind. He hated when people tried to do everything for him. 

He could hear Newt’s footsteps getting closer to him and he looked up, trying to listen. Suddenly, Newt slid into Thomas’s side of the booth and Thomas jumped, whacking his knee on the table. He helped and his hands automatically went down to clutch his knee, despite the obvious struggle of the table in the way. 

“Are you alright, Tommy?” Newt asked. Thomas nodded his head quickly. He’d be damned if Newt started treating him like a clutz. “I was wondering: Could I get your address? Y’know, to pick you up for our date.” 

Thomas nodded and carefully gave Newt his address, he didn’t need Newt ending up on the other side of the campus because of him. “Thanks, Tommy!” Newt said before standing up and the unexpected happened: Newt kissed Thomas right on the cheek. Thomas felt his cheeks heat up, and he could hear Newt giggling as his footsteps faded away. 

“That boy will be the death of me,” Thomas grumbled.

—————————————————————

*3 years later*

Their first date had went fantastically and Thomas and Newt had continued dating. Aris had even noticed a slight change in Thomas’s overall mood. Thomas was less grumpy about asking people for help (even though he mostly asked Newt, or Aris, depending on if Newt was deployed or not). 

Speaking of Newt being deployed, Thomas always got more sad when Newt was gone. It was mostly for short periods of time, but they started getting longer and longer as Newt was a member of the army for a longer time. Aris could always see the color drain from Thomas’s face when the phone rang. 

College had somewhat ended and Aris and Thomas had agreed on staying roommates in an apartment not too far from the campus. 

This time, however, Newt had been deployed but there was no communication whatsoever. They weren’t allowed to know where he was and when he was coming home. And it sucked. Especially for Thomas, who never left the apartment unless it was via Aris who would sometimes drag Thomas out of the house. 

They were at a college football game and Thomas was struggling to sit still. He couldn’t even see the damn game. So why had Aris brought him? Thomas wished Newt was here, he’d be quietly whispering what was going on throughout the game. Thomas could tell it was halftime by the cheers and screams going up, and therefore, it was hard to make out what the announcer was saying. 

He suddenly felt Aris grab his hand and pull him up. “Aris? What are you doing?” Aris didn’t answer and Thomas wondered if he hasn’t heard him. It wouldn’t be a surprise, people were cheering so loudly that if Aris wasn’t holding his hand, Thomas would cover his ears. 

He could feel Aris guiding him down the stairs towards the field but Thomas didn’t question it; Aris probably couldn’t hear him anyways. When they reached the gate, Thomas thought they would stop but they continued until Thomas felt the change of ground under his feet. It was more springy/spongey despite being turf.

Aris led him out until Thomas assumed they were at what was roughly the middle of the field. Then, Aris disappeared, leaving Thomas stumbling a bit and twirling around, trying to find out where is friend had disappeared to. He gave up and reached up, covering his ears and hoped the people would stop their mad cheering. It was just him. Why were they cheering so loud?

Thomas was too overwhelmed to notice someone pull him into an embrace and he stiffened at first. But...Thomas closed his eyes when the familiar smokey/cinnamon scent of Newt washed over him. Tears filled his unseeing eyes and he felt his knees buckle. Newt gripped him tighter and fell down with Thomas until they were both sitting/kneeling on the football field. 

Thomas covered his mouth with his hand and let out a strangled sob. “I-is it re-really y-you?” he asked. He could feel Newt nodding because of how his chin was resting atop his head.

“It’s really me, Tommy,” Newt whispered. Thomas could hear him even over the cheers of the crowd. 

Thomas let the flood gates open and sobbed. 

Newt was home.


End file.
